I didn't know that plecos were escape artists!

M

Margaret1975

AC Members
Aug 15, 2007
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Yesterday, I purchased a small albino bristlenose pleco. I put him in the tank and everything seemed fine. This morning, I woke up to find him all dried out on the floor.:eek: I guess that he squeezed through a half inch opening next to the filter. It's the only way that he could have gotten out. I'm so heartbroken. :sad:I plugged that hole and I'm going to get a new one today, but it doesn't make the pain go away. I really liked him!

Does anyone have any experience with a pleco escape artist? I never heard of them before.:confused:
 
I have a tank full of them and so far, no one has sucked their way out of the openings in the back of the tank. The babies have been known to suck their way up the HOB water outflow and into the filter box, so I am always very careful when I clean the filter box.
 
There was a fair amount of algae on the glass in the tank when I put him in there. I think that he may have gotten a little too excited last night and sucked his way out:cry:
 
Bummer. Those things are amazing. I wish my store had them.
 
Wow, I'm So sorry that happened to you! I'm ordering a baby from a gal on here, I'll definitely make sure there aren't any openings before he gets here.

Annette
 
Sorry to hear it, but yeah, it happens sometimes. Plecos often breach pretty hard taking a gulp of air, and every now and then it sails them right out of the tank. I even had one chew through a soft mesh intake, wiggle up the intake pipe, and and right into the impeller! Very sad, she'd just laid eggs too... You don't have to take extreme measures with your tank when a pleco is resident, but try to cover the obvious spots a natural breach could carry one out.
 
I bought 4 baby bristlenose a few months ago- after 2 days I found one of them dried up on the carpet, and it must have climbed up at least 4" of glass above the water line. Since then I've made sure that all my tanks have well-fitting condensation trays.

It's pretty upsetting when it happens though....
 
My pleco has disappeared, too. Maybe he did the same thing. I will check the floor! Thanks for the tip.
 
they also go into the HOB filters...

They come up for "gulps" of air sometime, but I've also noticed my two commons like to try to swim up the current (kinda like a river or stream I guess) and they will jump into HOB filters. I since switched to canister and they spend all night stuck on things right in front of the canister outlet, and try to swim into it, but since its so small they just hang out near it.
 
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